Which do YOU prefer?  A little yellow flower plant, or the poisoning of our bodies, minds and lives?

First off, I am a “Dandelion Fan.” I have thought they were beautiful since I was a child, a wonderful almost sunflower-like plant that has been demonized as an “ugly weed” by the people who would sell you on the idea that a green lawn with only green grass is the only standard of beautiful that there can be.

Those same people are of course always selling you something, and in this case it would be the chemical products that will help destroy these same plants, so that the perfect green-only lawn can be obtained.

I “get it” when it comes to golf. I do not get it when it comes to an adopted cultural standard that vilifies what is actually not only a beautiful plant, but one that can supply us with actual food and even have huge medicinal qualities for some people out there who can make use of the liver-cleansing effects of this wonderful plant.

Indeed, many cultures even eat the leaves as part of a salad.

The worst part is that this need to have a grass-only “perfect” lawn is also doing a great job at poisoning our entire ecosystem with the liberal use of the common deterrent, glyphosate. This chemical is turning up in the bodies of huge segments of the population. It is my personal opinion that adding a foreign chemical to the body will likely only cause problems. And the fact that we are exposed to this chemical unwittingly, and in so many ways now through incidental environmental exposure, that our bodies are essentially being invaded by this chemical in a way that we never asked for nor would ever want.

An even deeper question for me is this: Where is the liability in this scenario. Who is held responsible for the invasion of this chemical into our bodies when we were never informed, nor allowed, it in our bodies to begin with.

Unfortunately, as is the case in the world of commerce, if a direct link cannot be “proven” to a chemical causing problems in an individual’s body, it’s “business as usual” in the corporate world and on-going exposures can be kept up for countless years, to the detriment of a people’s health, and the huge lining of a for-profit corporation’s wallet.

I firmly believe it is yet another example of simple brainwashing. If we live in an urban or suburban area where there are grass lawns, the “standard” we are preached is that we must not have these plants growing on our lawns. Yet they are native and natural to our environment to begin with. So why are we so easily convinced, and so easily buy into, these standards.

So we pay for chemicals that not only ruin our environment, but ruin our health. We actually pay for this to happen. We expend our energy to obtain money to buy these products that do nothing except fulfill a standard that we’ve been brainwashed with via simple, yet effective, and persistent advertising.

The Most Natural, Safe, Chemical-Free Alternative…That WORKS:

We are so incredibly brainwashed, that not only do we buy into the standards, we forget that there are even alternatives to using chemicals to eliminate dandelions from our lawns if that is what we really feel we must do.

If you look into the costs of most lawn services, the ones that place the chemicals on your lawns several times each season, you will find that simply hiring a service off of craigslist or similar service, to manually remove the dandelions with weeding tools, is very similar if not the same.

I know a family that uses a team of garden weeders that charge $150.00 per hour, with a team of five, to manually take out the dandelions by hand. They have special tools they use, either the fork tools or the standing “popper” tools which are much easier and faster.

They can knock out most dandelions from an average half-acre yard within that hour, even with relatively heavy growth.

Then, grass seed can be put in the holes left behind.

The Pre-Emergent, to Prevent Dandelion Growth:

An organic, non-gmo corn gluten can also be put down six weeks ahead of dandelion season the next year, and perhaps again mid-season, as a pre-emergent to help prevent their seeds from sprouting without impacting already grown grass or other plants. It also acts as a fertilizer, and is entirely safe to be on immediately after application for both people and pets, with no toxicity whatsoever.

A couple side notes:

The dandelions must be pulled out with their full root intact, or they may grow back. One natural tactic that can be used to deter any remaining root from growing back is to use a vinegar solution in the hole where the root came out of. You would want to search for a higher-acid vinegar designed for this purpose, as compared to standard kitchen vinegar. The plus is that the solution will not have a negative impact on the soil, but will likely destroy the root.

The pre-emergent listed above should not be used in conjunction with new grass seed being put down, at least not for a solid six weeks after the pre-emergent is put down. Doing so will not only deter the seeds from the dandelions from sprouting and taking root, but will also deter the grass seed from growing as well.

So we want to make sure we are putting seeds down at far different times from the pre-emergent.

Spring and mid-summer are great times for the pre-emergent, fall is a great time to put seed down for new grass to grow next spring. As an exception, as long as we’re six weeks past using pre-emergent, we can put grass seed in any spots we need it.  In the northeast, we shoot for mid-April to put the pre-emergent down, then after any manual removal of dandelions we’ll put grass seed down in early June, then wait for any further grass seed until Fall making sure it’s six weeks past the pre-emergent if we used it again during the summer (our routine is to use it only once, in the Spring). 

Then plenty of water will help the seeds, and hopefully, with enough seed, water, and ideal conditions…help “choke out” the growth of dandelions as well.

As of this writing, dandelions are also being used to make tires…(?)…heard about it on the news recently. 😉